21-006-SP Alert note Acute Hunger in Afghanistan (Activated)

Dansk Folkehjælp has submitted an alert regarding the acute hunger in Afghanistan. DERF has decided to activate the alert and open a call

More than half the population of Afghanistan – a record 22.8 million people - will face acute food insecurity from November onward, according to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report issued 25.10.2021, by the Food Security and Agriculture Cluster of Afghanistan, co-led by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN and the UN World Food Program. The combined impacts of drought, conflict, COVID-19, and the economic crisis, have severely affected lives, livelihoods, and people’s access to food. The report’s findings come as Afghanistan’s harsh winter looms, threatening to cut off areas of the country where families desperately depend on humanitarian assistance to survive the freezing winter months. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report has found that more than one in two Afghans will be facing crisis (IPC Phase 3) or emergency (IPC Phase 4) levels of acute food insecurity through November 2021 to March 2022 - lean season, requiring urgent humanitarian interventions to meet basic food needs, protect livelihoods and prevent a humanitarian catastrophe. 

The report also notes that this is the highest number of acutely food insecure people ever recorded in the ten years the UN has been conducting IPC analyses in Afghanistan. Globally, Afghanistan is home to one of the largest numbers of people in acute food insecurity in both absolute and relative terms. There has been a 37 percent increase in the number of Afghans facing acute hunger since the last assessment issued in April 2021. Among those at risk are 3.2 million children under the age of five who are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition by the end of the year. In October 2021, WFP and UNICEF warned that one million children were at risk of dying from severe acute malnutrition without immediate life-saving treatment. For the first time, urban residents are suffering from food insecurity at similar rates to rural communities, marking the shifting face of hunger in the country. Rampant unemployment and the liquidity crisis mean that all major urban centers are projected to face Emergency (IPC Phase 4) levels of food insecurity, including formerly middle-class populations. In rural areas, the severe impact of the second drought in four years continues to impact the livelihoods of 7.3 million people who rely on agriculture and livestock to survive.